Chicago indie-rock band Ratboys have introduced a brand new album: Singin’ to an Empty Chair is out out February 6 by way of New West. Featured on the album is the brand new single “Wherever,” a tightly wound slice of pop-rock with a music video directed by Bobby Butterscotch. Test it out beneath.
Singin’ to an Empty Chair spans 11 songs—together with current monitor “Gentle Night time Mountains All That”—and was produced by Chris Walla, the previous Loss of life Cab for Cutie member who additionally labored on the band’s 2023 album, The Window. In accordance with a press launch, singer-guitarist Julia Steiner penned a lot of the songs after attending remedy for the primary time and discovering new methods to work via a troublesome, however needed, dialog with a cherished one from whom she’s estranged.
“The aim is to replace this particular person on what’s been happening in my life and to attempt to bridge that deadlock and attain out a hand into the void,” defined Steiner. To take action, she adopted the “Empty Chair” approach realized in remedy, throughout which an individual makes an attempt to have a troublesome dialog with somebody who isn’t bodily current by imagining they’re in a chair reverse them and talking on to it.
Ratboys just lately introduced a 2026 North American tour, which begins on February 25, in Detroit, and lasts on via till mid-April. They’re set to carry out at Pitchfork Music Competition London subsequent month, too, alongside Upchuck and Get together Dozen.
Examine The Window in “The 37 Greatest Rock Albums of 2023.”
All merchandise featured on Pitchfork are independently chosen by our editors. Nonetheless, whenever you purchase one thing via our retail hyperlinks, we could earn an affiliate fee.
Singin’ to an Empty Chair:
01 Open Up
02 Know You Then
03 Gentle Night time Mountains All That
04 Wherever
05 Penny within the Lake
06 Unusual Love
07 The World, So Madly
08 Simply Need You to Know the Reality
09 What’s Proper?
10 Burn It Down
11 At Peace within the Hundred Acre Wooden




